Started more than nine years ago at The Olympian, The Video Guy column is a weekly look at films from a "regular guy's" perspective. I have no formal training as a critic, other than I've seen a lot of movies and have a lot of opinions, but I'll do my best to give you an idea of what's out there and whether it's worth your time.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..

Interesting ideas, so-so execution

Writer-director Andrew Niccol has a distinct vision of the future and science fiction, although it’s been realized to its fullest potential in one of his films, the still-entertaining “Gattaca.” After a long hiatus, Niccol returns to familiar territory with IN TIME (PG-13, 2 stars), a flick that doesn’t quite make its intriguing premise work.

In this dystopian future, our bodies are genetically engineered to run on a currency of time after the age of 25. The rich can stockpile years and live forever, while the poor literally live from check to check, bartering hours while constantly watching the dwindling LED readouts on their arms (how does anyone sleep with one of those?).

Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) is a perfectly nice guy – he donates his time to his mother (Olivia Wilde) and street urchins – who happens to live in a time-addled ghetto, where a cup of coffee costs four minutes and those unfortunate enough to stockpile time die right in the street.

While out drinking with his buddy Borel (Johnny Galecki), Will helps rescue a wealthy gent from the neighborhood hood (Alex Pettyfer). As it turns out, this mysterious man has more than a century on his clock that he gives to Will before committing suicide. This large transfer of currency alerts timekeeper Leon (Cillian Murphy), who starts tracking Will as he leaves the ghetto for tony New Greenwich.

There, Will gambles against uber-rich Phillipe (Vincent Kartheiser) and woos his striking young daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), whom Will is forced to kidnap when the timekeepers catch up to him.

This marks the line of demarcation where the film shifts from a sleek sci-fi flick to a standard heist film, as Will and Sylvia turn into a futuristic Bonnie and Clyde, stealing time and giving it to the poor while staying one step ahead of their pursuers. I would have liked Niccol to do a bit more with the sci-fi element before changing tracks, which makes the second half of the film a disappointment for me.

Much has been made of Timberlake’s transition into dramatic fare, and he does a decent job – it’d probably be best if he didn’t do any crying scenes for a while – but he, along with everyone else, is done in by some putrid dialogue at times.

While this one didn’t work for me, I remain a fan of Niccol and await his next trip down the sci-fi highway.

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The average person doesn’t spend much time wondering if William Shakespeare really wrote his plays, but apparently there is a subset of folks who don’t think The Bard really was old Will S.

Master of cinematic disasters Roland Emmerich must have been intrigued by this conceit, as he paused long enough from blowing up American landmarks to make ANONYMOUS (PG-13, 2 1/2 stars), a silly piece of historical fiction that does contain enough compelling twists to make it palatable.

That is, if you can get past the first 30 minutes, where Emmerich and writer John Orloff introduce a sprawling cast of characters and historical maneuverings that will leave your head spinning if you aren’t paying VERY close attention.

Essentially, Emmerich’s theory is this – Edward de Vere (Rhys Ifans), the Earl of Oxford is the true author of Shakespeare’s plays, having written them to help inspire the English people to revolution, using the real Will Shakespeare – a mouthy actor – as the frontman. The Earl has been carrying on an illicit affair with Queen Elizabeth (Vanessa Redgrave as the older version, her daughter Joely Richardson as the younger one), and wants to maintain her favor.

Behind the scenes machinations, however, have left the Earl in a vulnerable position, and that’s why he has to give up authorship of his work. Lovers of historical work will find plenty to chew on, with a familiar cast of characters making power moves that would shape the European landscape. I’m sure there are plenty of inaccuracies here, but what are you expecting from the director of “2012″?

Ifans chews the scenery as de Vere, and the host of respected British thespians that round out the cast do a good job. The sets and models recreating ancient London are quite impressive for a film with a modest budget, but in the end, the story is just too implausible to really get behind it.

***

When it comes to potential movie ideas, I would imagine that “birding” would be near the bottom, maybe slightly above a zookeeper who talks to his animals … uh, well, I guess that explains why THE BIG YEAR (PG, 2 stars) got made.

Despite a blinding array of comedic talent, the film provides little more than a shallow look at the competitive world of bird watching, never truly digging into the obsession that would drive these people to the ends of the Earth to see another feathered friend.

This is the kind of genial time-waster that will live on in basic-cable purgatory for years to come, leaving you to wonder “When in the world did this movie come out?” Fox took a humongous bath on this film – a meager $7 million return on its $41 million budget.

Jack Black stars as Brad, a typical Jack Black character — this time a friendly schlub who has an unrequited fantasy of doing a Big Year, chasing birds across the country. Steve Martin stars as Stu, a hotshot businessman ready to give up corporate America for his own shot at avian glory. Owen Wilson is Kenny, the man they’re all chasing as the defending Birder of the Year thanks to his 700-plus total.

Of course, no one wants to admit to anyone they’re in the competition, for fear of tipping their hand, so our trio spends a lot of time pretending to watch birds for fun while secretly adding to their totals. Since birding carries no dramatic heft, our protagonists also have some movie-ready issues to deal with – Brad’s relationship with his surly father (Brian Dennehy), Stu’s realization of his own mortality and Kenny’s baby troubles with his wife (Rosamund Pike).

Have I mentioned there are a zillion people in this movie? Anthony Anderson, Anjelica Huston, Joel McHale, Jim Parsons, Kevin Pollak, Rashida Jones and Tim Blake Nelson all show up in various bit parts. But why? Could they really have thought this was going to be a comedy smash? Or were they that eager to work with the director of “Marley & Me”?

That’s arguably the biggest question surrounding this completely disposable film, which I’m sure you will complete forget about while folding clothes in 2017.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..